August 2004 I took up SCUBA diving. It’s an opportunity to look as daft as humanly possible on land while having a great time underwater. I never thought I’d get the opportunity to swim under a fish (doesn’t sound like much I know, you had to be there).
I’ve got all my own equipment now (what I need, anyway) and it’s listed here:
| Equipment | Make & Model | A few words of reason |
|---|---|---|
| Wetsuit | Oceanic Shadow System 2005 5mm | Full titanium lined suit and a shorty; makes 3 suits.Keeps you warm and, well, moist. |
| BCD | Mares Morphos Twin | No inflator hose (Airtrim), integrated weights. |
| Gloves | Hydrotech | Cheap. Work well. Oceanic gloves are too small! |
| Boots | Oceanic Shadow System | Match and integrate with the suit. |
| Computer | Suunto D9 |
Watch size, built-in compass and wireless air integration. USB PC interface. There’s no scratch guard so it can get knocked, but it’s mineral crystal and titanium so it doesn’t matter too much. |
| Knife | Hydrotech Titanium | Won’t rust, it’s titanium! |
| Fins | Mares Avanti Quattro Pro | The best you can get, apparently. |
| Weight System | Mares MRS | Integrated weights, fit the BCD. |
| Weight System | Oceanic Shot-Weight Belt | Integrated weights are rubbish.  |
| Bag | Oceanic Excursion Plus | Big and has wheels. Took days to find all the pockets. |
| Mask | Cressi-Sub Matrix | It fits my face and it let’s me look at the instruments. |
| Regulator | Oceanic Delta 4 Second Stage with Oceanic DX4 First Stage and Oceanic Swivel 180 Octopus | Free parts for life if you have them serviced annually so you just have to pay for labour. The octopus has no ‘right way up’ so works straight away in a panic. |
As you can see, a lot of my equipment is from Oceanic, the reason being, I like Oceanic equipment, nothing more to it than that. I wasn’t going for an everything from one manufacturer thing.
I bought most of my equipment from Taunton Scuba at the Dive Show but I also bought some from Dive 90 in Cheltenham. The BCD came from Dive Inn and was shipped from Denmark. I’d happily buy from any of them again.
For information on diving you can do a lot worse that to pay a visit to Divernet. Don’t forget to stop by the forums. In a similar vein, take a look at uk.rec.scuba.
